OPENING TIPS
• The basketball court inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum will be named in honor of former USU men's basketball head coach
Stew Morrill during Saturday's game.
Morrill, who is the Aggies' all-time winningest coach with 402 victories, is also the school record holder in career games coached at 558, and ranks as the second-longest tenured head basketball coach in school history.
• With Utah State checking in at No. 22 in the most recent Associated Press poll, it is the 10th team to be nationally ranked in school history and first since the 2019-20 team climbed as high as No. 15. USU's highest-ever ranking was in 1960 when it was No. 7 in the nation. Overall, USU is 70-23 (.753) as an AP ranked team.
• Utah State is 10-1 inside the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum this season.
•Utah State is one win away from its 20th win of the season. It will be USU's 33rd 20-win season in program history. Overall, USU is 32-18 (.640) when going for its 20th win of a season. Utah State's 32 seasons with 20-plus wins are the second-most by any program in the Mountain West behind UNLV (37).
• Head coach
Danny Sprinkle was named the recipient of the Jim Phelan Award Mid-Season honors on Jan. 4.
• Utah State junior wing
Great Osobor has been named to the 2023-24 Lute Olson Award Mid-Season Watch List and is one of the top 10 candidates for the 2024 Karl Malone Award.
• Utah State ranks in the top 50 in the nation in several categories, including defensive 3-point field goal percentage (.285, 7th), field goal percentage (.495, 9th), assists per game (17.13, 22nd), scoring offense (81.00, 31st), scoring margin (+11.65, 32nd) and rebounding margin (+6.04, 35th).
• Graduate senior guard
Darius Brown II ranks fifth in the nation in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.76), seventh in assists per game (6.70) and 48th in minutes played per game (35.22).
•
Osobor ranks in the top 50 in the nation in field goal percentage (.593, 28th), rebounds per game (9.22, 37th) and defensive rebounds per game (6.39, 43rd).
• Utah State is 17-1 this season when scoring at least 70 points.
• Utah State is one of just three teams in the nation returning zero points to its 2023-24 roster, joining New Mexico State and Northwestern State. The Aggies also have the second-fewest returning rebounds (0.004 percent) and are tied for the second-fewest returning assists (0.003 percent), both behind NMSU.
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